Saturday, December 13th, 2008...2:26 pm
Whither Politicker?
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I was just on a radio show with Evan Brown from PolitickerAZ. Brown told us that Politicker announced yesterday that they are shutting down operations in most of their states, Arizona being one of them.
It looks like the current media decimation is affecting “New Media” too.
11 Comments
December 13th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I got the feeling when they started selling pop-up ads that they were either unconscionably greedy or were feeling the economic pinch. Looks like it was the latter.
December 13th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
That’s too bad. I enjoyed getting their daily updates.
December 13th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Dear Politicker, did you really need to call my nice, friendly candidate a “loser” on three separate occasions? I mean, I know that she was Native American and thus her supporters were impoverished and not giving enough contributions, but really…
(We’ll miss you.)
December 13th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Thanks for the post, Ted
One of the advantages of the new situation is that I get to respond to comments – yay!
JaneAZ,
In all truth, CD1 was a boring race, all around. I like Mary Kim, and I did notice in my own reporting that I wasn’t spending a lot of time on either Ann Kirkpatrick or Mary Kim Titla. At first I chided myself for sexism, but as I reviewed my notes I realized that while both had well thought out positions, were candidates with gravitas etc. etc., nothing they said was particularly interesting. I mean, it was the usual stuff, but there was no zip. Kirkpatrick’s nomination and win was virtually predestined even before no Republican with a shot at winning stepped up. I’m sorry your candidate didn’t have a better run of things. I never had a dog in that race and I still don’t.
Also, I think you’re referring to Wally Edge’s “Winners and Losers.” I completely respect what Wally did, but I want to add that his views weren’t necessarily reflective of the site’s as a whole. Part of his job was to stir up talk and controversy. I assure you that Mary Kim’s Native American heritage didn’t have a thing to do with her inclusion there.
Thanks again, Ted, and perhaps we’ll meet again along the political reporting trail…
GOODNIGHT ARIZONA!
December 13th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Hi Evan, I met you on a bus once in Tempe when I was headed to an Obama debate watching party and you gave me your card.
I’ll really miss PolitickerAZ.com, as I’ve come to depend on it for timely coverage of local AZ politics. As I noted on the air today, the Arizona Republic does a horrible job of covering state and local politics. The Arizona Capitol Times is a bit better, but not always timely. I believe there was and is a market for a website like Politicker in Arizona, but what do I know. Have you ever considered starting your own own blog with paid advertising?
December 13th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Unfortunately the political coverage business is a cyclical one. We get a ton of interest during election season, then it drops off rapidly and will slowly begin building as we start finding out who will be running for various offices in 2010. That’s just the way things are.
At the same time, it is encouraging that a record number of young people got involved this year. And to be honest, I think this may be one of the benefits of all that political advertising. When your favorite sitcom is filled with breaks featuring campaign commercials, even the unengaged teenagers notice.
What about a political cable channel? To be honest, I’ve often wondered why, with all the plethora of narrowly focused cable channels out there, you don’t find anyone interested in starting a political cable channel. No, that’s not all that far fetched– looking at the politically focused television talk shows, they collectively hold their own most of the time, even though in most cases they have some sort of an editorial bias. C-SPAN is sometimes good (sometimes it is in fact interesting to watch a debate between two candidates who articulate their positions) but it is often boring– they aren’t in business for ratings and it shows.
So I actually do believe that a political channel, featuring a higher entertainment value than C-SPAN and including a mixture of debates, interviews with candidates from all over the country and a talk format in which both sides are represented (possibly including panel discussions) might be well received, at least among enough of an audience to make it as popular as say, the food network or the sci-fi network.
December 14th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
But just like I take my sugar with coffee and cream… I look forward to my politicker every morning!
Bummer.
December 15th, 2008 at 7:51 am
Aw, I’ll miss the intellectually stunted commentary that conservatives live in the comments.
December 15th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Eli, C-Span is as closest as we are going to get and it does not seem to get a lot of ratings.
However, if Al Franken becomes Senator Franken, that may change.
December 22nd, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Ah, c’mon Ted, you were “on a radio show” and didn’t even plug it once?
And how many times did I say “Rum, Romanism and Rebellion?” Ten times? You didn’t even say “Desert Politics heard Saturday’s at 1PM on AM1190 Nove M radio once!
Share the love, would ya?
;^)
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:52 am
Hey i think you did a good job reporting on the political side toward C-D-1.No regrets, just keep-REPORTING ,PROCEED .Always make time when its your job.Evan, you could have reported on the time Mary kim attended a forum and refused to answer questions. you said you would post it, but you never did. anyway, all in a day’s work….or not